Day: March 23, 2016

NEWTOK, AK – JULY 06: The marshy, tundra landscape surrounding Newtok is seen from a plane on July 6, 2015 outside Newtok, Alaska. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images) From Chris Mooney at the Washington Post / 03.23.2016: Amid blowout warm temperatures in the Arctic this year, two newstudies have amplified concerns about one of the[…]

By Matthew A. McIntosh / 03.23.2016: In a speech to interns tonight, Paul Ryan said the following: “There was a time when I would talk about a difference between ‘makers’ and ‘takers’ in our country, referring to people who accepted government benefits. But as I spent more time listening, and really learning the root causes[…]

A mosaic of Hercules with pet Cerberus. Photo: snarl Dogs played a special role in ancient Greek society and mythology; Cerberus guarded the gates of Hades, the goddess Artemis used dogs in her hunt, and Greek citizens employed dogs for hunting and protection. To the ancient Greeks, picking your new pup was an important decision,[…]

By Patricia Smith / 03.22.2016: That we are a country divided is nothing new. We have seen division in our country previously. That we continue to allow ourselves to become more and more divided demonstrates we still have not learned to listen to President Abraham Lincoln. Twenty-two years before he was elected President of the[…]

By Matthew A. McIntosh / 03.23.2016: With the Malheur Refuge occupiers behind bars and one deceased, the cleanup has begun at the location. That is really an understatement. Reporters touring the facility were told to watch their step as the occupiers had “defecated everywhere”. These fine, upstanding soldiers for the Constitution and the American way[…]

By April Hamlin / 03.23.2016: During a press conference in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, President Obama called out Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz for his suggestion that Muslim communities should be put under surveillance, making note of the fact that this kind of policy was exactly why Cruz’s father had fled Cuba for America, the[…]

Photo Malia Litman By Charles Topher / 03.22.2016: When Sarah Palin first hit the national political scene, what little credibility she may have had lasted about eleven minutes. Before the first Katie Couric interview was over, millions of people were pointing at her and laughing. By the time her run for the vice-presidency was over,[…]

With the twenty-six short comic dialogues that made up Dialogues of the Gods, the 2nd-century writer Lucian of Samosata took the popular images of the Greek gods and re-drew them as greedy, sex-obsessed, power-mad despots. Nicholas Jeeves explores the story behind the work and its reception in the English speaking world. Image of Lucian appearing[…]

By Brian Tashman / 03.23.2016: Televangelist Jim Bakker yesterday equated the supposed persecution of Christians in America to the violent persecution of Mideast Christians by ISIS terrorists, telling his audience that the U.S. government may soon “mow down” Christians who pray in public spaces. Bakker said that he himself is a victim of anti-Christian oppression[…]

From the Freedom From Religion Foundation / 03.02.2016: The Freedom From Religion Foundation and two of its members sued today a Texas sheriff over his decision to affix Latin cross decals on county patrol vehicles. Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson announced in December that he “wanted God’s protection over his deputies” in deciding to place[…]

From Kavita Iyer at TechWorm / 03.02.2016: Scientists at HRL Information and System Sciences Laboratory in California have been working to make real life imitate art, very much in the style of The Matrix, by developing what is termed low-current electrical brain stimulation to modulate a person’s learning of complex, real-world skills. This can be[…]

By Matthew A. McIntosh / 03.23.2016: Stephen Fry gave an interview to Ireland’s RTE Network in which he was asked, as an atheist, what he would say if he died and found out God was real. His response went viral. He has been nominated for the “Interview of the Year” award by the Sanford St.[…]

By Matthew A. McIntosh / 03.23.2016: In a recent interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, who asked how he would fund various programs, Donald Trump said: “We’re the policeman of the world: We take care of Germany; we take care of Saudi Arabia; we take care of South Korea,” he said during Thursday night’s presidential debate.[…]

In 1473, Alexander Hardynge, who had finished his bachelor’s degree at Oxford nearly two years previous, borrowed money through an educational loan service. The loan came with a one year repayment deadline. With some of that money, he rented a room at Exeter College and offered tutoring services to college students. He soon repaid that[…]

Josh Malin / VinePair From Hunter Lanier at The Houston Chronicle / 03.22.2016: World of Beer, a bar/restaurant chain, is prepared to offer a group of interns $12,000 to engulf themselves in beer culture by traveling the country. Only three lucky “Drink it Interns” will be chosen. They will be expected to take pictures and[…]

Melissa Click, a University of Missouri professor who teaches communication and journalism, was caught on tape threatening a journalist for covering a campus protest. She was subsequently fired for this and other such incidents she incited. From Michael Shermer at Skeptic Magazine / 03.23.2016: The French political journalist and supporter of the Royalist cause in[…]

By Matthew A. McIntosh / 03.23.2016: This photograph was used by Texas Agricultural Sid Miller to lambaste President Obama for being in Cuba while holding a Che t-shirt during the Brussels attacks. The problem? The photo is a doctored fake. The actual photo was taken at MIT in Cambridge in 2009, and the t-shirt did[…]

‘One of my aims is to extricate the Bible from the hands of the mainstream church and conservative Christians.’ Conservative Christians and evangelicals might want to claim freehold over the Bible – but it’s a text for many readers, even atheists. Bobby McKay/Flickr The 19th-century anarchist philosopher Michael Bakunin had this to say about Christianity[…]

Pushed out of the pulpit by his sexuality, HDS is bringing Ballon back Harvard Divinity School student Danny Ballon is working to create safe spaces for LGBTQ people of faith. ince he arrived at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) two years ago as a master of theological studies (M.T.S.) degree candidate, it has been Danny Ballon’s[…]

Why scientists believe what they do, and why the public too often doesn’t go along Elias Chasiotis / Astronomy Magazine From David J. Eicher at Astronomy Magazine / 03.23.2016: There’s a sickness over the land. It may not, as the biblical plagues did, kill anyone. But it is corrupting millions of people with an unrealistic,[…]

As he watched live images emerge from the terror attacks today in Brussels, Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer he fully supports the idea of “going into Muslim neighborhoods,” and “looking for potential terrorists.” “Ted Cruz suggested today the U.S. should step up its, uh, involvement, ‘going into Muslim neighborhoods,’ he described it, looking for potential[…]

Clare Lopez / Reuters Adviser for GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz made headlines today when she said Joe McCarthy was “spot on” about Communists infiltrating the federal government during the 1950’s. The GOP Senator from Wisconsin spent the height of his political career telling his fellow Americans that communists had infiltrated every level of the federal government.[…]

Villainous Company As the people of Brussels, the country of Belgium and rest of the world try to deal with yet another act of violence, another act of terrorism, here in the United States, we recall the bombing Saturday March 19 in Ankara Turkey, as well as the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California, Paris,[…]